Ravens reconsidering plans to stay in Phoenix
Webb says secondary takes the blame for loss to Oakland
After an eight-day stay out West produced two losses for the Ravens, coach John Harbaugh said he will re-evaluate plans to stay in Phoenix between his team’s Oct. 18 game against the San Francisco 49ers and its Oct. 26 game against the Arizona Cardinals.
The Ravens spent a week in San Jose, Calif., between their season-opening loss to the Broncos in Denver and their 37-33 loss Sunday to the Raiders in Oakland. But Harbaugh said the 0-2 start was not directly responsible for his reconsidering his travel plans.
“We’ll just try to do what’s best,” he said Monday at the team’s training complex in Owings Mills. “We’ll make a decision in the next couple of days. It’s not a big deal. ... If we don’t [stay in Arizona], it’ll be because we’d rather ... be in our own confines.”
Harbaugh said the long wait between a Sunday game in San Francisco and a Monday night game eight days later in Arizona is the main factor.
“If it was a short week, it would be a no-brainer to stay out there,” he said.
Despite the results, Harbaugh was pleased with the way the Ravens handled their extended stay away from home. He said he watched the players gain a new appreciation for the preparation of coaches and support staff.
“I told the team during the week, ‘When you have a chance to be here all together for the entire week, you see how much goes into a football game,’ ” he said. “Our guys were in the hotel working on football all week. I would love to reap the benefits of that and be up here talking about what a plus that was in
winning two football games.”
Webb: Loss is on secondary
A Ravens secondary that in its 2015 debut held future Hall of Fame quarterback Peyton Manning to 175 passing yards and no touchdowns took the blame for the team’s defensive problems Sunday.
“Secondary, we’ll take this one,” cornerback Lardarius Webb said. “We just gave up [too much], made too many mistakes.”
Asked to elaborate, Webb gave a litany of reasons as to how a group that looked so strong in the season opener struggled so badly against the Raiders, who a week earlier threw for most of their 203 passing yards late in a blowout loss to the Cincinnati Bengals, the Ravens’ next opponent.
“We gave up too many big plays, and if we didn’t give them a big play, we gave them a pass interference or something that extended a drive,” Webb said. “I feel like if we had worked on our big plays, keeping it in front of us, playing the technique, so we don’t have to do pass interference, they wouldn’t have gotten some of those points that they got.”
The problems began early, when rookie wide receiver Amari Cooper got behind star cornerback Jimmy Smith for a 68-yard touchdown barely two minutes into the game. Receiver Michael Crabtree beat Webb for completions of 37 and 29 yards, the latter for a touchdown.
Raiders quarterback Derek Carr “did a good job of getting the ball out fast, getting it to the playmakers,” safety Kendrick Lewis said. “It was more of a space game, getting the ball in their playmakers hands and letting them run and make plays.”
Carr threw for 351 yards and three touchdowns, with six completions for 20-plus yards. Oakland converted nine third downs in 14 tries, all through the air, and every member of the Ravens secondary was called for either holding or pass interference. According to ProFootball Focus, Lewis and Smith missed two tackles apiece.
No update on Perriman
Injured first-round NFL draft pick Breshad Perriman appeared to ramp up his activity in warmups before Sunday’s game, jogging in public for the first time since he hurt his knee early in training camp.
But Harbaugh said he had no update Monday on Perriman’s status. Asked whether the rookie wide receiver’s return to the field is imminent, he said: “Not that I’ve been told.”
Perriman was expected to be Torrey Smith’s replacement as a deep threat for quarterback Joe Flacco and a complement to No. 1 wideout Steve Smith Sr. But Flacco was successful throwing to wide receiver Kamar Aiken and tight end Crockett Gillmore against the Raiders.
Cornerback acquired
After their secondary struggled mightily against the Raiders, the Ravens acquired cornerback Will Davis from the Miami Dolphins in exchange for a seventh-round pick in the 2016 draft Monday.
Davis, a third-round pick out of Utah State in 2013, has struggled with injuries and was inactive for the Dolphins’ first two games. In 15 career games, he has 20 tackles and three passes defended.
On penalties
Harbaugh said he remained puzzled by the holding call that wiped out a potential game-saving interception by safety Will Hill against the Raiders.
“I’m still looking for it,” he said Monday. “I don’t see it on tape. I’m not sure what to tell Will on that one. It looked like a good play to me.”
Hill said after the game that he believed he had made a clean play.
Harbaugh, meanwhile, offered no excuses for defensive tackle Timmy Jernigan, whose roughing-the-passer penalty also hurt the Ravens on Oakland’s gamewinning drive.
“The Timmy Jernigan one was a foolish penalty,” he said. “It was really inexcusable.”